If You Blinked You Missed: Atlas/Seaboard's The Cougar

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's been a while since we visited the wild-n-woolly world of Atlas/Seaboard with its strange mixture of high-powered talent, mid-range talent, high-concept ideas, and total rip-offs. Today's subject, The Cougar (February-April, 1975) manages to find itself firmly in all of those camps with creators such as Steve Mitchell, Gary Friedrich, Dan Adkins, and Frank Springer working together to bring something cool and new to the Groovy Age of Comix--via a mish-mash of then-popular pop-cultural fads: Evel Knievel, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, movies, super-heroes, monsters...and bayou voodoo. The story goes that Atlas/Seaboard publisher wanted the rights to Dan Curtis' cult-favorite Kolchak, but found the price too high. As was his habit, Goodman ordered up a rip-off, er, homage, but Mitchell and company tried to be at least a bit subtle in what they were doing (though editorial couldn't resist putting a blurb with the term "night-stalker" on the cover). The first issue, written by Mitchell with art by Adkins and Springer had a pretty good Night Stalker vibe, though Jeff Rand aka The Cougar was much more action-oriented than Carl Kolchak. He was a stunt-man by trade, after all...

Cover art by Frank Thorne

The second (and final) issue features the origin of The Cougar....

If you're interested in reading it, just let Ol' Groove know, baby! (What, you thought I'd spill everything in one post? Perish the thought, Frantic Ones!)